On 2012-07-09 22:25, woofmutt wrote:"I was only a kid in the 70s and I knew they sucked. "

I thought the 70s were just fine when I was a kid. But in the 80s with punk and "new wave" I hated the 70s. Hate turned to indifference, indifference became amusement, and now I have an appreciation for the 70s and think most aspect of the 80s sucked.

Television and movies were better in the 70s than the 80s. Literature was definitely better. And while I could never pin down one decade's music as better than another's the 70s were the last decade of diverse pop radio when one could hear country, bubble gum, disco, crooners, soul, rock, and funk played on the same station.

I still can't appreciate 70s mens fashion or hair, but it was no worse than galaxy wash jeans and Bono mullets. And while 70s interiors provided many things to laugh at they were still cooler than 80s country charm or beige and gray neutrality.

I've never seen E.T.

I've never seen E.T. either.

And actually I associate Punk more so with the late 1970's. 1976 is when the New York CBGB's scene started up, 1977 was the year Punk exploded in England, and was also the same year the Masque in Hollywood opened up.

And you're right about film, the early 1970's was the time for auteurs like Martin Scorsese, Hal Ashby, Robert Altman, Peter Bogdanovich, Bob Rafelson, etc.

And on the low-brow side the 1970's were also notable for Blaxploitation, Kung Fu movies, and the Golden Age of Porn.

Well John-O pretty much nails it for what was good about the 70s
But the 70s really sucked for the most part, Fashion,Hair, Death of Tiki,Disco!!!!Some real bad Television.
Politics, The War, EST, And most of the good things John-O mentions were a reaction to those times

Punk was from the 70s, Oi!

What did the 80s give us AIDS,Big Hair, Day-Glo shredded jeans & T-Shirts, Hair Bands!!! Cocaine, Coffee Houses
But it did give us some damn good movies also.

The careful reader will note that I did not claim punk (and new wave) were inventions of the 80s, I merely cited their influence on me in the 80s.

I know that technically punk was a 70s thing (or a 60s thing depending on what you're willing to call punk). Hell, while in bed one night in the late 70s, on the front porch of the double wide trailer I grew up in*, I can remember overhearing a news show my folks were watching that mentioned a band in England with the jaw droppingly shocking name of the Sex Pistols causing an outrage over their song God Save the Queen and some promotional artwork.**

That said I would argue that punk's greater impact on US pop culture didn't happen until the 80s. The Decline of Western Civilization was released in 81 (though apparently it began production in 79); The Minutemen's music came out in the 80s; FEAR's the Record came out in 82; the best album the Ramones ever put out, End of the Century, was released in 80***; no good punk rockers showed up on CHIPs in 1982; the movie Valley Girl, featuring a young Nicolas Cage's awesome performance as a punker, came out in 83; Phil Donahue took a head shaking, eyebrow raising look at punks in 84; and the movie Repo Man came out in 84 which, in case you haven't seen it****, is really swell and features a punk lead character.

So even though the Sex Pistols were writing kids books and the Clash had their own line of tea time biscuits by the 80s***** I still say that the greater impact of punk on US pop culture wasn't until the 80s.

The End
of Part I

* It's true. There were two bedrooms in the trailer. I had four sisters. So I got to sleep on the front porch. It was an entirely enclosed and insulated porch, but it was the front door to the house. And there was freezer out there. (So, bigtikidude, you weren't the only one in the 70s without a banana seat bike or a family vacation to Hawaii. I can still recall my horror in the 4th grade of having to wear 1950s pegged legged jeans from my grandma's church's clothing bank.)

**That story ain't my ante in a round of More Punk Than Thou cuz I've always refused to play that game and have listened to what I like and couldn't give a donkey's ass whether what I like is cool or that someone else was listening to it years ago. I like the Minutemen. I also like George Strait. Yeah, that's right, George Strait!

*** I love that album, but I know it's hardly considered their best by all the hardcore Ramones fans.

****Calm down, kitten. I know yuh got it on Beta, VHS, laser disc, DVD, Blue Ray, digital download and your favorite quote is tattooed right across the top of your butt.

Woofy, That show was an episode of 60 Minutes, which was produced shortly after The Sex Pistols TV dust-up with Bill Grundy on the BBC
The first Generation of Punk Rockers started here (West Coast, Calif.) in 1977 with the first emergence of Punk bands in LA & Orange County
( The Weirdos, The Zeros, Black Randy and the Metrosquad, The Germs, X, The Dickies, The Bags, and the Screamers just to mention a few)

(1976 in the UK & NY with the No Wave movement & Australia also)
You are right about Proto-Punk starting in the 60s.

That's a good three or more years for the Mainstream, Movies & TV & I guess yourself to have caught up, Sooooo....
That Punk episode of Chips is still one of the most God awful things to ever burn the retinas out on TV.

On 2012-07-10 20:17, woofmutt wrote:I think an argument could be made that the "new wave" look was in part created by clueless Hollywood portrayal of punks.

Sorry to contradict you Woofy, but you can blame the Bands directly for the 80s "New Wave" style
Adam & the Ants, ABC, Culture Club, Haircut 100, Any New Romantic band i.e. Visage, Ultravox (The Midge Ure years)
Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, A Flock of Seagulls & even David Bowie & Madonna had a fashion influence on the era.